Liu 1 Jacqueline Liu Professor Grosshans Engl 120-03 Spring 26 April 2012 Oedipus: The King of Guilt It’s amazing how guilt‚ a simple human emotion‚ can be the driving force of all human conflict. But what is even more impressive is how far we will go to protect ourselves from the pain associated with that guilt. The number one defense mechanism in this kind of situation is denial and by denying responsibility for our actions we in turn rid ourselves of guilt. We don’t like to feel as though we
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duality of Oedipus could be reflecting a split or multiple personality. Oedipus could be lying about being a kind and just king or he could indeed be a person with more than one face. This is not to imply that he is two-faced in the sense of personality‚ but in the sense of his mentality due to a repressed childhood or the knowledge of his fate. In the play‚ Oedipus had no recollection of killing the king until confronted about it by Tiresias. Long ago Tiresias prophesized that Oedipus’ fate was to
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Character Analysis In the play "Oedipus the King‚" written by Sophocles‚ there are many intriguing characters who are introduced throughout the entire play. Jocasta‚ also known as the queen of Thebes is a very well rounded character. Jocasta appears in the final scenes of Oedipus the king‚ but her role in the play is nothing but important. Jocasta is the mother and wife of Oedipus‚ and is also Creons sister. The relationships conveyed in the play are very controversial as Oedipus is both a son and
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Sophocles penned Oedipus Rex‚ he opened up massive debate on what it means to be human. The play allows readers to follow Oedipus‚ a tragic hero condemned to death‚ as he makes his way through his final days in Thebes before he is exiled. As readers‚ we see Oedipus fall from grace‚ and with the use of dramatic irony it makes it that much more difficult. Upon analyzing Oedipus‚ it becomes evident that there are distinguished connections between him and Christ‚ and that in some ways Oedipus could be seen
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Medea and Oedipus the King were and remain masterpieces of the Western literary patrimony. These tragedies gave rise to strong emotional releases of fear and pity. Because of this catharsis‚ it induced important philosophical reasoning. The main concern was whether or not it damaged the individual mind. The central figures in this debate were Plato and Aristotle. Paradoxically‚ it is difficult to navigate in the rivers of human drama without being splashed by feeling of fear and pity. The central
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A major theme of the classic Greek theatre production Oedipus Rex is the conflict between knowledge and ignorance. This is shown most strongly within the conversation held between Oedipus and Tiresias‚ the blind seer. Despite the prominent trait within the old man‚ rendering him unable to visually see his environment‚ he was very well-respected and revered by the people of Thebes for his ability to communicate with the gods‚ being given prophecies and answers to questions in doing so. This is seen
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An overwhelming desire for personal contentment and unprecedented reputation can often result in a sickly twisted distortion of reality. In Sophocles’ Oedipus the King‚ a man well-known for his intellect and wisdom finds himself blind to the truth of h life and his parentage. Arthur Miller’s play‚ The Death of a Salesman‚ tells of a tragic character so wrapped up in his delusional world that reality and illusion fuse causing an internal explosion that leads to his undoing. Each play enacts the
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suffering. From Sophocles’ Oedipus the King‚ to the poetry written by Jonathan Swift‚ John Donne and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu‚ multiple literary scholars have demonstrated suffering throughout the last couple centuries. Whether it may be sexual suffering as seen in the work of John Donne’s His Mistress Going to Bed‚ and Jonathan Swifts The Lady’s Dressing Room and A Beautiful Nymph Going to Bed‚ or the emotional‚ physical and psychological suffering in Oedipus the King‚ literature’s greatest authors
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Gilgamesh and Oedipus Rex The stories of Gilgamesh and Oedipus Rex show us through their themes that they have stronghold ties to the characteristics of classical literature. The story of the flood from the Old Testament shows great significance in the epic of Gilgamesh. In the story‚ it tells how Gilgamesh built a boat because the gods were going to send a flood and he wanted to cross the ocean to find immortality. Well‚ this is very similar to how God told Noah to build the ark because he was
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The main concentration of Oedipus was preventing his downfall in the story‚ but due to his inner blindness and the rest of his character flaws he was unsuccessful in this journey‚ which is the reason that Oedipus was a static character throughout the whole story. He has various flaws‚ which always started multiple conflicts in the story‚ all of which gradually directed him to his downfall in the plot of the play. All of the shortcomings of Oedipus are the reason for his quick‚ horrific downfall from
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